I get the impression this first story might have been influenced by a disgruntled tailor with a fussy customer. People, for the last time, if you turn around and find a store or building that you knew wasn’t there the last time you looked–and there’s an eery fog surrounding it, complete with appropriately perched blackbirds and wind chimes–do not go in, and do not buy anything. Or at least don’t accept packages from mysterious gentlemen with sinister smiles.

First, apologies for the lack of color correction. I just got a new version of Photoshop elements, and like every edition before – – it’s completely different from the last one I used, and every function is yet another learning process. On the bright side, the podcast may be getting a new logo when I figure this silly thing out. Anyway, onto the comic…BEWARE, ISSUE 15! Yet another vintage comic where the writers forgot they didn’t need to describe every detail. Very much like the narration of a radio show, this may be a fun interactive little comic if you could get someone to read the dialog aloud.

The first story is more sci-fi romance than horror, which somehow seems to bring to mind Army of Darkness. I wonder if Sam Raimi was a fan? The second, a twisting tale of greed and numbers – – that actually cuts off before it gets really good. Ah well, the last frame is cartoonishly charming.

When I was a kid, hands-down Amityville horror was one of those movies that was so dark and creepy, I couldn’t really sit through it until I was probably 10 (which, if you’ve read and heard my ramblings over the last few years, you’ll realize was pretty late for me, considering I had watched Dead Alive probably a dozen times at that point.) This is the book that started it all.

I’m not going to say it’s based on a true story. I desperately want to, but I think we can all agree that events in this story are highly dramatized. There have been lawsuits. Debates. Fights. I’d like to believe drunken horror nerd brawls, even, about the events in this book based on the horrific ghostly experiences of the Lutz family in 1975. They left the house in just under a month.

For context, in 1974 Ronald DeFreo Jr brutally murdered his family in this house (which, to its credit, looks like a pretty damn creepy house even without the overlay and flames on the modernized book cover above). This book is not about Ronald, but each element of the book sort of comes together very well, and if you haven’t had enough of the fictional story, there’s so much you can explore after you’ve read this (from DeFreo to the Warrens, a pair of paranormal investigators whose cases inspired Jay Anson to write this). True or not, it’s a great book, a modern classic, and well worth your time on a stormy night or a sunny day.

I’m sure most of you have figured out by now that the main thing drawing me to some of these vintage comics tends to be the awesome cover art. This one, too, while gorgeous (just look at that awesome skirt) won me over with the cover alone, and what could possibly be one of the most ridiculous lines I’ve ever read. The Baffling Mysteries comics often fell victim to your typical walls of text you see with any visual medium that hasn’t quite grasped the law of ‘show, don’t tell’. Wasn’t surprised at all to realize they came from Ace comics, who also produced Hand of Fate (which I’ve posted here before as well.) The characters in this one practically narrate everything. I mean everything. Very much in the style of an ear play or radio drama. If it’s dark, and the panel is painted dark, you’ll be reminded by the character telling you that it’s definitely dark; so on and so forth.

The first story focuses on South American goat-men gods. Or, as the rest of the world refers to them, Satyrs. There’s plenty of color variation in the panels, but far too much text covering up the actual art. It seemed like as the stories progressed, the line art got a bit more rushed. There was potential with the goat-ment, and certainly a message about…archaeology and museums not being a bad thing, I guess. The second story in a far snowier setting has death skiing with a sort of urban legend twist to it. The best part about this comic is the art, really. The stories are just near-misses…but man, look at all those bright yellows!

The 70s. Glamour and glitz, a decade with perhaps the most experimentation in materials, colors, and style fashion has ever really seen. Drugs, discos, sequins, furs, scandals, decadence…yes, the 70s had it all in a way the burning-out 80s didn’t quite recapture in quite the same way. Perhaps that was why this movie worked so well.

It’s easy to overlook this movie with a glance, a quick perusal of the description, just a story about a glamorous photographer and a murderer who seems to be copying pose-for-pose every single element of her almost gruesome works. If I had to pick an American movie that really nailed the essence of giallo’s style, it would be this one. Please, do yourself a favor and watch this movie as soon as possible. It will stick with you forever. Plus, there’s a very young Brad Dourif making an appearance in it as well, and who doesn’t love Brad Dourif? Did I mention John Carpenter wrote the initial story-line and early script?

In a quaint 1950s town in rural Indiana, a witches coven was interrupted at the height of evil, and a curse was born. For 25 years, the curse was all but forgotten, until a Stranger walked in out of the rain one October night, and this once-sleepy town will never be the same…

– Dusty Crosley

Horror is an ever-evolving monster (pun aside), and one can’t help but think how well the genre suits just about every format, from print, to screen, to art, projection, radio, music, etcetera. I don’t think there has ever been a time when the genre had so much innovation or incredible variety as we’re seeing today. When I found this kickstarter, my breath was taken away by the eery beauty of the pictures in the video above. Frankly, I think you would be doing your self a disservice by not checking this project out.

Interested? Swing on over to the kickstarter page and help bring the first issue this gorgeous graphic series to life. Or, is that ‘unlife’?

Back when I was in junior high, the webcomic world was blossoming for the first time across the internet. Aside from my Archie comics, which my mom bought me on every bi-weekly grocery trip, I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to really delve into others until then. So, I decided I wanted to use my extra cash from household chores to buy something special. I went to a comic store for the first time, and I found…Lenore, by Roman Dirge (a fun artist who also happens to be pretty close friends with Jhonen Vasquez of ‘Invader Zim’ fame.) This was the first issue I bought, and I instantly fell in love with the creepy little dead girl who didn’t really comprehend the idea of mortality, and thus many of her poor pets had to suffer from her unwittingly dangerous affection.

My Lenore obsession burnt out by the time I was in high school and really exploring other, slightly more mature comics, but this book will always hold a place in my heart, and even to this day when I pick it up, a quick look at a page or two always elicits a soft chuckle. Don’t let your possibly bitter memories of the overly marketed Hot Topic prevent you from reading these comics. You’d be missing out on something pretty good.

There is nothing I love more than a mint julep, a warm summer night, and a pretentious theatre troupe digging up the dead. Why, I do declare it is the most lovely evening one can imagine. So why don’t we just all relax upon the back patio and enjoy ourselves a long, slow review with […]

Corruption and violence stalk the streets of New York, and only one undead but sometimes living man can deliver justice equally to the good and the bad, indiscriminately killing each and every one of them who stand in his way. In this episode, we discuss just how far that Maniac Cop will go in […]

I don’t want to be buried–ever, I want to live forever, but this isn’t about my issues. It’s about our issues with the new Pet Sematary. It’s also about the original. In this episode Corey and Maddy compare the two. The good. The bad. The dead and ugly. Check out this episode!

Summer is coming. I think we all know what that means–vacations. Whether it’s to a mundane motel on a stretch of beach far from civilization, a run-down mental hospital in Romania, or a charming Irish castle packed to the brim with cranky ghosts, everybody needs to unwind. This week, that’s just what Corey and […]

All around the world, it’s the same song – – weddings and honeymoons are nothing but trouble. Don’t take it from us, take it from Gene Wilder and Chevy Chase. They only ever end up in zany mayhem, mutant babies, and crazy capers with werewolves and drunken butlers. Join us in this episode as […]

I hope you’ve got a license to drive. Don’t want to get lost, boys. After all, you can’t kill gremlins or ghounies with a silver bullet. Now that we’ve got all the references to movies we’re not talking about out of the way, this is our belated April Fools special in which Corey finally […]